High
Looking for photographers/videographers interested in shooting some climbing footage at various Blue Mountains locations.
Must be ok with exposure and possibly challenging situations. Can assist with ropes and gear for rigging etc

Actually I'll slightly derail this with a question, would you be interested in having a drone do this work? For some time I've been setting about building a drone for the purposes of climbing photography. There are a number of technical issues and legal ones (need to get a license to do commercial aerial photography), however, in essence it's a very neat solution to climbing photography in general. In particular I'm relatively close to being able to have a climber carry an IR bubble (think usb pen drive emitting infrared / bluetooth signal), and programming a drone to be able to hover say 10m (legal distance is 30m but with various licenses etc) away from the climber as they climb up a cliff. Assuming I can address all the obvious safety concerns (and there are a lot!), would something like that be of interest to people here? Or would you find the noise of the drone to be too distracting / uncomfortable with the idea?
Some vids to give you an idea:http://robotics.asu.edu/ardrone2_ibvs/

It may fit in with some of the stuff depending on what sort of control you have over it all - both flight and photography wise. It would certainly fit in somewhere in conjunction with other camera work. Hopefully noise will not cause too much audio issues.

I'm not too worried by the idea of something flying around - but some locations may present flight issues. ie 100 to 200 m cliffs and 'live' climbing / single take sort of situations as opposed to rehearsed/repeated & planned shots etc. Also wind etc may be an issue in such exposed environs depending on the day etc

Would certainly be prepared to discuss it further. Drop us a PM if you are keen . . .

I've had a little to do with drones and filming over the last few years in advertising. My understanding is that they have a very limited battery life - a few minutes at best and that they can't handle even the slighted wind. So I can't imagine them be very useful for anything but a very specific shot. A friend played with one out at Point Perp a few months back - he took some spectacular shots flying over the edge - ballsy for a drone worth thousands of dollars I thought! He also got 'busted' by the CAA for flying it...

Anyway - I'd be keen to help out in a more conventional camera operator sense Macca. What's the route?

On 19/09/2013 nmonteith wrote:>I've had a little to do with drones and filming over the last few years>in advertising. My understanding is that they have a very limited battery>life - a few minutes at best and that they can't handle even the slighted>wind. So I can't imagine them be very useful for anything but a very specific>shot.

actually that's fairly inaccurate. They do have limited battery life, but again that's fairly variable, typical flight time is about 12-20 mins, more then enough for most vids. Ofcourse the trick is to carry multiple batteries. Re the wind, a decent drone is fine in winds up to ~40km/h at which point you need more custom build ones to stay perfectly still, but even at 40+ they will just move around a bit. As to how far, that depends on whether you have a pilot flying them or you're just using something like a GPS hold.
On the contrary I'd say aerial photography is where it's at for climbing, instead of paying ~20k for a helicopter you can get a drone to go whereever you like and then have the "director" control the camera shot.

sterror,
The CCA might be interested in a drone to get particular shots for a new ACT guide. Check out their site at: http://www.canberraclimbing.org.au and at: https://www.facebook.com/CanberraClimbersAssociation?ref=br_tf

On 20/09/2013 strerror wrote:>actually that's fairly inaccurate. They do have limited battery life,>but again that's fairly variable, typical flight time is about 12-20 mins,>more then enough for most vids. Ofcourse the trick is to carry multiple>batteries.

Might be the difference between a big drone that carries a broadcast camera or a smaller drone that carries an SLR camera I guess! The big one I saw being used for Holden shoot had a 4 minute battery life.

>Re the wind, a decent drone is fine in winds up to ~40km/h at>which point you need more custom build ones to stay perfectly still, but>even at 40+ they will just move around a bit. As to how far, that depends>on whether you have a pilot flying them or you're just using something>like a GPS hold.

Cool - the camera would need to be very stable. I've seen amateur footage that has a nasty shudder all through it that made it pretty useless for a 'proper' video. Stills are ok - but the video is a real problem without good stabilization.

>On the contrary I'd say aerial photography is where it's at for climbing,>instead of paying ~20k for a helicopter you can get a drone to go wherever>you like and then have the "director" control the camera shot.

7. UAV OPERATION OVER UNPOPULATED AREAS
7.1 Small UAVs
7.1.1 Provided that a small UAV is operated not above 400ft AGL and remains clear of designated airspace, aerodromes and populous areas, there are no restrictions imposed upon the operation of a small UAV. The operator is responsible for ensuring that the UAV is operated safely and remains clear of potential low level traffic, structures, powerlines etc, except where operation in close proximity is part of an operation authorised on the operatorís operating certificate. The operator should consider the benefit of a thorough reconnaissance of the proposed route beforehand.